Joseph Johnson
Hey! I’m Joe, a designer fuelled by playful concepts, bold visuals, and a passion for branding, illustration, and marketing. I’m hard-working, eager to learn, and ready to bring energy and fresh ideas to the creative industry.
Created for the Roulette competition brief, this project tackled my randomised project prompt ‘Human Possibility’ by diving head-first into the wonderfully weird. I came up with Gertys Quirkys, a fictional talent agency run by the eccentric Aunt Gerty, an old soul on a mission to recruit the most bizarre human talents the world has to offer. Think backwards-talkers, toilet seat smashers, and limbo skaters… all available for stag dos, brand adverts, influencer collabs, and so much more.
From initial concept to full visual identity, marketing and website, I built Gertys Quirkys to feel playful, bold, and incredibly unusual.
My submission for the D&AD “New Blood Secret 7” brief was all about creating a visual riddle. I chose the live version of ‘Warsong by The Cure’ and was tasked with designing a record sleeve without the song title or artist named, just a striking visual that hints at the song’s identity for those willing to decode it.
I spent weeks fully diving into the band’s discography, lyrics, the album it belongs to (Songs Of A Live World), and even the live performance itself. The final design is a layered, mixed-media mystery, built from photography, illustration, print, and digital collage. I embedded 12 hidden references, only the most die-hard Cure fans could figure out.
This piece embodies the idea that a sleeve can tell a story, if you know where to look.
Symbiosis is a fictional UK-wide tour of networking events built for one very specific match made in heaven: new musicians who need design work, and new designers who need portfolio pieces. It’s a creative skill-swap setup that helps both parties grow and hopefully make something cool together in the process.
This project focused heavily on the user journey, covering everything from pre-event marketing, to branded touchpoints during the event, and a thoughtful post-event email follow-up designed to keep connections alive long after the amps are unplugged.
Brand Identity – Marketing Campaign
The Distance Diary is a virtual relationship space, helping long distance couples maintain connection, commitment and passion through meaningful, playful, and fun digital interactions. With approximately 42% of long distance relationships failing and video calls just not cutting it when replacing face-to-face interaction, The Distance Diary is a space for couples to stay emotionally close and share every day moments, no matter where they are.
While The Distance Diary can be used by anyone in a long distance relationship, the launch campaign targets soon to graduate students, who will be living apart after university.
This project was created in collaboration with Charlotte Smith, it consists of a brand identity which we both worked on, a marketing campaign that I created and an app design that Charlotte put together.
